I felt obliged to interview once more CPP founding chairman and NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison. Such an interview is very timely as President Aquino would present and deliver his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.
Sison has recently released his latest book Continuing the Struggle for National and Social Liberation, which contains his selected writings from 1986 up to 1991. My favorite topics in this book are: the national situation, the social basis of a fascist state, the nature and problems of a regime, the political landscape, the roots of Philippine crisis and armed conflict, GPH-NDFP peace negotiations, and the US military bases.
The questions I wish to ask Sison focus on PNoy’s last days in Malacanang, the political outlook of the Filipino nation before the upcoming national elections and the prospects of reform and revolution. This writer is hoping that the fundamental campaign issues would become clear before the official campaign period starts.
1. What is the Filipino nation’s political outlook before the forthcoming national elections in a nutshell?
JMS: The contending aspirants for the presidency lead the various political factions of the exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. They compete in claiming competence and integrity and in accusing each of incompetence and corruption.
The elections staged by the exploiting classes conjure the false illusion of democracy. It is the climax of a systematic process of excluding the genuine leaders of the people through surveillance and worse acts of state terrorism, discredit though the use of government propaganda and bourgeois mass media, deprivation of campaign funds, vote-buying and pre-determination of results, whether manual or electronic vote count is used.
The electoral system is monopolized by the political agents of US imperialism and the local exploiting classes. Such concessions as the party list system are made supposedly to benefit the so-called “marginalized sectors”. But even such concessions have in effect been taken back by virtue of a Supreme Court ruling allowing the major reactionary parties and dynasties to create their own party list groups.
2. President Aquino’s popularity has drastically fallen since the Mamasapano massacre. Should we compare his administration’s unpopularity to that of his hated predecessor – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?
JMS: Indeed, the so-called popularity of Aquino has drastically fallen since his criminal negligence and insensitivity in relation to the Mamasapano incident. His political decline, discredit and isolation are comparable to those of Arroyo. The yellow journalists and yellow trolls in the pay of the Aquino gang were unable to stem the tide against Aquino in the bourgeois press.
Even the opinion poll survey firms Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia could not break the fall of Aquino for awhile. But the Pulse Asia owned by the Lopa first cousins of Aquino are still trying to manipulate the questions and interviewees to give Aquino a high level of trust. The interlocking yellow agents in SWS and Pulse are up against the reality of growing mass unrest and exposure of the corruption of the Aquino gang under the deceptive slogan of matuwid na daan.
For his political survival, Binay is now denouncing the colossal corruption of the Aquino gang. It is indeed ironic that Binay is made to appear as the biggest crook by Aquino but in fact Aquino and his gang are by far the most corrupt. Increasingly, the corruption of Aquino under such devious accounts as Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), off budget account, Malampaya fund, social fund, and so on will be further exposed.
3. Continuing the “Daang Matuwid” legacy of supposedly substantial reforms is the supposed legacy that PNoy would leave to his presidential successor. What substantial reforms and achievements that this administration actually did?
JMS: The Aquino administration has not made any substantial reforms nor taken any step to assert national independence, to stop human rights violations, to promote development and social justice through land reform and national industrialization and to foster and expand what should be a patriotic anf progressive culture.
Aquino has ignored or is oblivious of these just demands of the people. You get the most cruel and malicious kind of rule and unprecedented corruption since the fall of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. The names Marcos and Aquino will go down in history to represent the worst rulers that US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords have imposed on the Filipino people.
4. PNoy is reported to have promised that he would name his ruling coalition’s presidential standard-bearer, after his forthcoming and final SONA (State of the Nation Address). It seems that he can’t brag his achievements anymore because of his shameful unpopularity. Is he desperate in picking an heir-apparent that would shield him from possible charges against him and even the people’s judgment after 2016?
JMS: Yes, Aquino is desperate in picking a presidential successor who would shield him from accountability and liability for his crimes and betrayal of the people.
5. Some experts say that PNoy’s endorsement would be the ultimate “kiss of death” for his ruling coalition’s possible candidates. Would it be a move of political suicide for Mar Roxas and Grace Poe to seek the endorsement power of PNoy, given the fact that his popularity has been dwindling to the level of the much-hated Arroyo administration?
JMS: Yes, indeed, Aquino’s endorsement can be the “kiss of death”, unless it also means the pre-programming of the automated electoral system (if retained for use in commiting electoral fraud as in 2010 and 2013) and the provision of large amounts of public and private money for the campaign of the favored presidential candidate.
6.The most prominent campaign issue in this electoral circus would be the anti-corruption drive of PNoy’s “Daang Matuwid” administration. Given the fact that three traditional opposition senators (Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla) are now in jail for plunder charges, and then the same charges are being thrown at Vice-President Jejomar Binay and his entire family, is there an obvious double-standard in former’s anti-corruption drive?
JMS: There is double standard. The Aquino gang commits the worst and biggest acts of corruption but not a single big fish among them has been arrested and jailed. It will take a great deal of deception, spending and cheating for Aquino and his gang to draw people’s attention away from their crimes and impunity.
7. Vice-President Binay surprisingly defected from the administration’s inner circle, and then he severely criticized it for its shortcomings. Would this be the last sign that the issues would be clear before the start of the campaign period?
JMS: The political struggle between the Aquino gang and Binay is a fight to the death. Had Binay not countercharged the Aquino gang of being the biggest crooks and incompetents, he would have fallen down continuously to the gutter. But the Aquino gang is now determined to do everything to bring down Binay.
8: There is a remote possibility for the “dark horse” tandem of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Bongbong Marcos on the mutual political basis of iron-hand leadership. I notice that more people are clamoring for this tandem, because they have enough of increasing criminality, drug abuse, and government inefficiency. It seems for me so far that the next six years are crucial for the Filipino nation. Kindly give your honest reaction on this observation.
JMS: Many of those who would like to vote for Duterte as president will be turned off by his having Marcos as vice presidential candidate. There are those who may be desirous of a strong government against rampant criminality in and out of government. But the vice presidential candidacy of Marcos will also underscore and bring back memories of the unbridled criminality of those in power during the Marcos fascist dictatorship.
9.What would be the probable role of the US State Department in this election? Kindly also address the history of its interference in Philippine electoral affairs, since the election of Ramon Magsaysay as President in 1953.
JMS: The US State Department will pretend to merely observe the presidential elections, especially if all the major candidates are subservient to US imperialism. If necessary, it will issue some slanted statements to favor a candidate. Certainly,it will tell the US multinational companies to give “goodwill” money and facilities to the favored candidate.
The US State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA can be very intrusive in the Philippine politics against any presidential candidate that they deem anti-imperialist or ineffective against the revolutionary movement or for a presidential candidate like Magsaysay, a well proven pliant US puppet in the hands of CIA master spy Edward Lansdale. The US can go so far as to manipulate the reactionary armed forces in favor of its presidential candidate in the Philippines.
At any rate, the US always somehow interferes in Philippine politics in general and in Philippine elections in particular in order to serve US economic, political, cultural and security interests; by choosing and favoring the Filipino puppets who can best serve US interests at the expense of the Filipino people.
10.How do the progressive party-lists and the legal mass movement assess the platform and program of any presidential candidate? Would critical endorsement be enough for a candidate to be pressured in adopting some populist or nationalist postures on certain issues? This writer is referring to the experience of progressive party-lists in critically endorsing Manny Villar as the common presidential candidate of both the Makabayan and the Nacionalista Party-NPC loose alliance in the last presidential elections.
JMS: As far as I have observed, the progressive party lists and the legal mass movement assess the program and platform of every presidential candidate against their own political programs of action. By way of engaging in a united front or alliance, they choose for critical endorsement or support the presidential candidate with the program closest to theirs.
There can be no guarantee that the chosen presidential candidate would win or would carry out the positive promises in his or her program. To uphold their principles and protect themselves, the progressive forces maintain their independence and initiative in the alliance. That is what they did in endorsing Villar. And that is what they can be expected to do in the 2016 elections.
As I explained earlier, the elections staged by the reactionary government is to serve the interests of the big compradors and landlords. One cannot expect to get a patriotic and progressive president in elections where the endorsement, money, media manipulation and electronic pre-programming of election results by the most powerful and wealthiest kingmakers count the most.
11. Do you see any gleaming prospect and outcome of reform and armed revolution on this situation when political mudslinging and electioneering is at its peak?
JMS: I do not see any basic reforms being advanced by the entire ruling system of big compradors and landlords and by the kind of elections the system stages. The progressives and honest reformers can use the elections and other opportunities in the system to ventilate the issues against the system and to arouse the people for system change, for revolutionary change.
The dirty preparations for, the conduct and outcome of the elections in favor of the political agents of the big compradors and landlords can serve to underscore the futility of using the elections for system change and the need to wage revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy against the oppressors and exploiters.
12.This writer has this last question: how could the restive and disillusioned Filipino masses use this electoral circus to their advantage?
JMS: The advanced section of the Filipino masses, who are restive and disillusioned by the system and who are spearheaded by the patriotic and progressive forces can broadcast the demands of the national democratic movement, praise and vote for the candidates who are for these demands and denounce the candidate who are against the demands. Most important of all, they recognize that reactionary elections are no substitute for revolutionary struggle.###
Updated: 07/06/15 6:31am
